Tiresias

He's a decent enough appointment, though I think his recuitment policy in the long term will be very poor, just look at Villa now (though that has also got to do with McLeish), so we should get the last laugh at the very least...

On bbc website some idiot texting in "in premier league every game is a classico!" I assume he didn't see the Sunderland game then

Beating Blackburn?

Great goal. Shockingly Steve Kean's attempt to defend for 45 minutes and do nothing but, hasn't paid off. That man is a genius...oh wait

Blackburn are dreadful, they're like that Inter game where they put out Barcalona by defending deep and just kicking to ball back to them after every attack that failed. Except against Sunderland. No attempt to try and even counter attack, they just hoof it back to sunderland as soon as they get in a tackle.

A million times this

a formation

As stands Krul Simpson Kadar Perch Santon Abeid Cabaye Gosling HBA Jonas Ba Packing midfield to compensate for lack of experience there and at back.

Well with a brilliant midfield their problems at the back shouldn't be exposed too much oh?

this.

Talk about waiting for a bus / injury half a season...

Gah frustrating. Still Guthrie has been alright, just Cabaye has been poor since being more defensive. EDIT: JUST SAW OTHER THREAD GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

I think ideally he's in centre but I don't quite see that he deserves to keep Best out the side when he's back from injury, if Best keeps up the form he was in, he's going to get / assist more goals, and until / unless HBA's form outstrips Best's significantly, I'd be happier for him to replace Obertan. I wanted him tested in the middle, and i've thought he's looked pretty good at times, and very promising, but it's surely not that bad if he's out on the right? The only worry is how much cover he'd give Simpson, but we're a stronger side with Best fit at front. They've obviously decided, but Pardew's got to make decisions based on form and such, if he's only to play centrally I'd drop him for Best, bluntly.

ಠ_ಠ

who's manager? Obviously not Lyon's after a 7-1 win mate. Unless Ashley owns Lyon too

Raylor (ok it was really really bad defending) aahhaha

Rooney's been shit, he'll be asking to leave to City again in january

I dunno if he's be much more than a 3rd defender playing CDM, I'd be less convinced he could spread the ball and initiate attacks...actually he's Colo, of course he could

It'd be the best thing for his wallet

Imagine if Chelsea and the Manchester clubs all went out this week

haha, has to be said there is some flexibility in the Fair play rules, if stuff is being done to meet them they can be passed through. Thing is, it's not like their squad has been generating great resale value from this 'setting the transfer window alight', are any of their players going to sell more than they bought them for?

You wonder about whether player confidence could become a problem amoung some of the more peripheral players at barcalona as their standards are so high, a slight dip (to a level good enough for any other club) puts loads of pressure on them. That said Xavi and Messi seem immune to form fluctuations so should be all right. El Classico could be a disappointment, but do think Mourinho has been getting closer to beating Barca, and there's so much pressure now on Barca to go and win, I have to think it'll be an amazing game. I suspect that tactic of playing Khedira up high will return and do what pepe did last season, but without the red cards, could work well. I'm not going to call it, as quite frankly even of Real Madrid do amazing and score 3 or something, Messi could just score 1 more than them whatever the tactical battle results in.